I’m all for perspective - but let’s have proper perspective
February 14th, 2009 by ColinI’m all for perspective - but let’s have proper perspective
By Ezy Rider
It’s never hard to tell when England have won a friendly; whole forests give their lives so that scores of football writers can give notice of the need for a new Wembley trophy cabinet. A lovely mix of jingoism, arrogance and pomposity - possibly the only fields in which the English truly still lead the world - comes together on a Thursday morning, and hangs around until the next time England lose a friendly.
At which point, the usual bipolar press reaction swings the other way, and the Sun Wot Won It crew suddenly morph into the Root And Branch brigade. Suddenly, all those who have not hurled themselves off the previous bandwagon quickly enough are decried as fantasists, displaying an attitude that will forever prevent the England team from achieving anything. Keywords here are technique, reality check, reform, gulf, Brooking, etc. But if you want to see the big guns of post-friendly flagellation, perspective is palabra numero uno.
Perspective is the most popular buzzword deployed by England followers on their way to their pessimistic high horses. Of course perspective is required; hours before being beautifully dismantled by the European Champions, Rio Ferdinand was informing the rest of the planet that England could beat anyone. But this should mean an objective, reasoned appraisal of England’s strengths and weaknesses; not hack shorthand for everyone said we were brilliant, but I knew better, nor a delusion that Trevor Brooking doing X, Y and Z will give us a Spain-esque England team in ten years time.
It’’s ironic that it was Spain kicking off the usual fatalism this time. Prior to their Euro 2008 success - possibly the first Euros/World Cup since 1986 where the best team has won - they were as fond of labelling themselves as underachievers as England. While the English have often regretted a lack of technique and skill that the Spanish have in abundance, Spain’s only previous international success had been to pick up the European Championship trophy on home soil - two years before the only time England have troubled medal-makers.
Another nation to whom we are required to genuflect before their awesome footballing artisty is Holland; the home of Cruyff, Van Basten, Rep, Gullit, Bergkamp et al. Trophies to their name? One. The same trophy which has since been won by such shining lights of skill as Greece and a Michael Laudrup-less Denmark. When John Jensen put the Danes ahead in the 1992 final, were Englishmen cursing their luck that their country could never produce such a footballing maestro? Were we seething with envy at the Zagorakis-shaped riches at Greece’’s disposal in 2004? I don”t think so.
But many will suggest that these were freak occurrences; certainly, Denmark”’’s status as the only country to win a tournament they failed to qualify for is probably safe. So we should turn to the most successful European footballing nation ever: Germany. Of the 27 major tournaments which Germany has entered in its various states of unity, they have won six, finished runner-up in seven, and third in three - that’’s 17 of 27 tournaments where they”ve reached the semi finals, and 13 where they’ve gone further. Yet do we look at Germany as we looked at Spain on Wednesday, as a different footballing race, to whose standards we cannot reach? Certainly, they’ve had brilliant players - Muller, Beckenbauer, Matthaus, Hassler, Maier, Rumenigge - but were the English greats, such as Greaves, Moore, Matthews, Finney, Shilton, etc. inferior to these in any area other than medals? Is their football culture one they we cannot match?
Different teams, players and nations play different styles of football; this is a given. Does this mean if one team playing one style loses to a team playing an alternative brand, that the strategy and style alone has triumphed? No. Three months ago, England became the first team to beat Germany - admittedly not the force they once were - in Berlin in 35 years; since then, England’s brand of football has not become obsolete and ineffective. It has simply been defeated by the best side in the world, playing at home, against a team shorn of its best players, who conceded two goals owing more to individual errors than incisive attacking football. Yet apparently the perspective we should all be taking up after a 90 minute friendly is that England cannot compete at the top level, everyone over the age of 9 should forget about kicking a ball again as they’re already dreadful at it, and we should put Trevor Brooking in charge of the country and hibernate for 25 years.
As suggested previously, it would take a particular kind of fool to suggest England are good enough to win anything at the moment. The standard English player is not able to play in the style of a Xavi or Iniesta (nor are 99.9% of human beings, it should be noted); Arsene Wenger’s preference for a certain type of player and the lack of Englishmen at Arsenal are not coincidental. But while English football may be a particularly ugly baby, this is no reason to throw it out with the Stewart Downing bathwater - Italian football is currently in thrall to Beckham, and Lampard’s reputation continues to be sky-high in Serie A, while Steven Gerrard is apparently one of the most coveted foreign players in Spain. With Senna and Alonso providing an effective safety net in defensive midfield on Wednesday, England were unable to test the theory that every one of Spain’s defenders was and is inferior to their English equivalent - Liverpool fans would likely be as indifferent to the departure of Arbeloa as United’’s were to that of Pique.
And their reaction to Pique’s departure is similar to the reaction we should have to England’s defeat on Wednesday; not necessarily indifference, but realising that it was a necessary step on the way to improving the quality that is already there. A fit of Pique if you like.
Posted in VBB News | Comments Off